Operation Marry Me Military and Open Aperture Photography made a Jacksonville couple’s wedding day extra special by hosting the wedding of Marine Sgt. Sam Thibeault and Thera Card at Tryon Palace in New Bern.

The military couple’s wedding was entirely donated by wedding vendors in the Craven County area and was valued at $21,885.

“It’s amazing,” Card said. “We’re getting married in front of a palace. We were planning on getting married in 2015, but we would never have been able to afford this, not even in 2015.”

Thibeault and Card are both from Millington, Mich., and have known each other since they were in middle school. Card joined her now husband at Camp Lejeune in 2010, and he proposed at North Topsail Beach on July 14.

“I’ve had a crush on him since I was 13,” she said. “He invited a bunch of friends and family (to the proposal) and they all brought cameras… it was after I already tackled him in the ocean.”

The couple reunited through social media while Thibeault was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010. They met in person during his welcome home party in Millington.

Operation Marry Me Military was started by Alecia Geddings of Oak Island Photography & Weddings of Brunswick County in 2011, according to the OMMM website.

“Being the daughter of a former Army serviceman, I felt compelled to give back,” Geddings said. “I knew that nothing I could offer would be grand enough or deserving enough for all that our military does for us. I contemplated day and night on how I could make at least a small difference in the lives of our military. Then it hit me! I was the owner of a thriving photography and wedding business, and I could at least assist a military member in starting their new life as a married couple. I felt I had no choice, I had to do it.”

“When Alecia called me, I thought she was going to tell me we didn’t win,” said Card, a volunteer firefighter in Jacksonville. “When she told me, I got goose bumps. It’s amazing. We are very, very lucky.”

“It’s great being married on Veterans Day — it will be easy to remember the date,” Thibeault joked. “I was shocked when I found out we won. It’s unreal. It’s a huge honor to be selected and to see how much the community cares about the military here.”

“It’s hard to live in Craven County, or just about anywhere in Eastern North Carolina, and not know a member of the military,” said Bob Mackowski, who, along with his wife, Amanda, are the Craven County event coordinators for OMMM and owner of Open Aperture Photography, which donated nearly $4,500 of goods and services for the Thibeault-Card wedding. “We have so many clients who are military members, and we’re so thankful to them. We’d been looking for a way to give back to them while doing what we’re best at. We met Alecia at a bridal show this spring and we were sold within two or three minutes. We knew this was perfect. We’re so thankful that we have the opportunity to give back to the military community.”

Page 2 of 2 - Eighteen vendors expressed their support of local military and for the wedding Monday by providing ceremony and reception locations, favors, hair and makeup, catering, flowers, wedding coordination, lodging, an officiant, invitations and the cake. The complete list of vendors who donated can be found at OMMM-craven.com.

“I am honored that so many jumped on board to be a part of my vision,” Geddings said. “Operation Marry Me Military married five couples throughout the state on Nov. 11, 2011, totaling over $200,000 in free goods and services.”